Fifteen Drabbles for Fifteen Pairings: THG
by aimmyarrowshigh
Summary: Written for the "15pairings" challenge on LiveJournal. Fifteen drabbles for fifteen Hunger Games pairings, both romantic and platonic. A drabble is a 100-word fanfiction with a beginning, middle, and end constrained in that word limit.
1. 001, Running In Place, Gale, Madge

**Author**: **aimmyarrowshigh**  
**Fandom**: _The Hunger Games_, Suzanne Collins  
**Story Title**: "**15pairings**, Theme Set #007"  
**Character/Relationships**: Gale/Madge, Prim/Rory, Cinna+Portia, Mr. Mellark/Mrs. Everdeen, Gale/Johanna, Finnick+Johanna, Haymitch+Brutus, Katniss/Peeta, Katniss/Gale, Cinna+Effie, Haymitch/Chaff, Finnick/Annie, Katniss+Finnick, Foxface/Thresh, Gloss/Clove  
**Rating**: PG-13  
**Warnings**: Some harsh language and adult themes.  
**Wordcount**: 1,500  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own anything. All characters, settings, and proprietary language are owned by the author of the work from which this is derived.  
**Notes**: I'm sorry. I signed up for three Big Bangs, somehow. I have no idea how I did this to myself.

******Fifteen Drabbles for Fifteen Pairings**

**001. Running In Place {Gale/Madge}**

Two ships passing in the night. Strangers on a train. Stories like theirs always had names of ways to move, to _go_, to keep on searching in their titles.

District Twelve never _went_. It was a stagnant place, with the merchants on one side and the Seam trailing the other. There was no yellow-brick road to traverse, nowhere over the rainbow.

Madge Undersee lived at the center in a bedroom with a window like a tower. Gale would always be a stranger in a strange land in her world, no matter how many times he climbed up to her window.


	2. 002, Stop, Prim, Rory

**002. Stop {Prim/Rory}**

"They're under a buck."

Prim shoved Rory's shoulder with a groan and he laughed, stumbling back a few steps. "You're _so_ gross; go away."

Rory chuckled. Prim pretended not to notice the way he bloomed dimples and a lopsided grin when he was pleased. "Hey, Prim – hey – hey – Prim… Prim? Primrose – "

Prim whirled around and Rory grinned at her blonde curls flying behind her. Her sweet face was pink with winter wind and annoyance. "What?"

"What do you call an adolescent rabbit?"

Prim closed her eyes with a resigned sigh. She tapped her foot impatiently. "Well?"

"A pubic hare."


	3. 003, Something That Lasts, Cinna, Portia

**003. Something That Lasts {Cinna+Portia}**

Portia's mother always pestered her about getting married, as though that was some sort of big accomplishment. _Find a nice man, settle down, stop working so hard. Didn't that Plutarch Heavensbee ask you to dance at the reception?_ Portia could never find the words to explain that she _liked_ working hard, that it was what she lived for. She could never explain that she couldn't fathom finding anyone to whom she felt a deeper connection than to Cinna. Things weren't that way between them, not anymore, but there would never be anyone else who could so thoroughly read her soul.


	4. 004, Marriage, Mr Mellark,Mrs Everdeen

**004. Marriage {Mr. Mellark/Mrs. Everdeen}**

It hit him like an arrow, low and sharp in his gut, every time he saw the Everdeen girl:

_She looks just like Peeta_.

Mr. Mellark never mentions it to anyone. It was a long time ago.

When the youngest Mellark boy tells all of Panem that he's in love with her daughter, Mrs. Everdeen feels the cold sting all over her body and reaches for her own littlest. She threads her hands through Prim's soft, blonde hair.

Prim has always suspected, and Peeta, too. But they both know that Katniss has no idea, and they both love her enough not to tell.


	5. 005, Make Me!, Gale, Johanna

**005. "Make me." {Gale/Johanna}**

She couldn't understand what he was doing, pulling the blankets up around them like this was normal. Like this was something that people really did in this world.

"Go home," she snapped, pulling the sheets out of his hands and wrapping them around her body.

Gale kissed her shoulder, letting the warmth of his breath flow down her back, making her shiver. "No. I'm drunk and you're warm."

"You aren't still drunk."

"And you're cold, Johanna Mason. But I'm not leaving." He reached across her chest and took back the linens, smoothing them out over the tangle of their legs.


	6. 006, Cliché, Finnick, Johanna

**006. Cliché {Finnick+Johanna}**

Finnick glowered at her, pointing to his door the way he wielded his trident seven years before – imperious, terrifying, and undeniable. "Get. Out."

Johanna just threw her head back and laughed. "You can't be serious, Nicky. You don't really want me to leave."

Finnick's nostrils flared. "I do want you to go, if you're going to try that again."

"So you'll fuck everyone in Panem except me, is that it?" Johanna stooped to scoop up her shoes.

"Yeah, maybe it is. I have never wanted and will never want you, Johanna. You and I are two peas in a pod."


	7. 007, Drunk, Haymitch, Brutus

**007. Drunk {Haymitch+Brutus}**

It occurs to Haymitch – belatedly – that if he were to smash that bottle over Brutus' head tonight, then that might be one less person out to kill his kids in the morning. It feels bulky and sort of slimy in his hand (until he realizes that slime is actually him, part sweat and part white liquor seeping from his pores).

Brutus grabs his wrist before he can bring the bottle down. "Don'even thinka 'bout it, friend."

Haymitch scowls. "Bastard."

Brutus just nodded and laid the side of his face against the bar. "'M sorry, Abernathy. I know you like… P-Peter?"


	8. 008, Chemistry, Katniss, Peeta

**008. Chemistry {Katniss/Peeta}**

From the moment their chariot thunders onto the streets of the Capitol and they light up the crowd with their clasped hands and bright smiles, it's clear that the Tributes of District Twelve have it – that inescapable something that the Gamemakers and Filmmasters search for, that zing, that pop.

That fire.

There's always a tribute that the cameras love, whose presence crackles across the entire Arena like embers and attracts silver parachutes and admirers and _money_. Finnick Odair. Enobaria. The last revenge of Johanna Mason. This year, Peeta Mellark provides the tinder, and Katniss Everdeen is a roaring, unstoppable blaze.


	9. 009, Something Crazy, Katniss, Gale

**009. "Let's Do Something Crazy!" {Katniss/Gale}**

When Katniss tells him that they should run away, ten thousand thoughts thunder through his head in a quarter of a second. It wasn't the first time he'd imagined what it would be like, just him and Katniss with their bows and arrows and dark Seam skin and her sharp gray eyes. They could live so well if they were alone and hidden, just two more creatures of the wilderness that the Capitol ignored. They would hunt all morning and run all afternoon and make love all night, and it would be better than anything that District Twelve had left.


	10. 010, Behind the Scenes, Cinna, Effie

**010. Behind the scenes {Cinna+Effie}**

Cinna knocked at the door with two crooked fingers, and he stifled a smile when Effie started and squeaked a bit. "Cinna! What a surprise! Come in, come in, come in."

Cinna smiled at the smitten woman, shutting the door behind him. Effie held her finger to her lips, then looked up at the ceiling and trilled, "Beetee."

They listened for the click of the screws before Cinna spoke. He laid his sketchpad out on the table and the glint of gold shone up from his samples. "Haymitch will fight you, but you can bribe him with a nice single-malt."


	11. 011, Men, Haymitch, Chaff

**011. Men {Haymitch/Chaff}**

"You ugly fucker!"

Chaff's dark face broke into a grin as he pulled Haymitch Abernathy into a tight hug, pounding him on the back. "How the fuck are you?"

He already knew, of course. Haymitch Abernathy was like the invisible hand at the end of Chaff's arm – always the same, but sometimes twinging. He smelled like sour-hot malted rye, soft goosedown, and the mysterious black smell of District Twelve, earthy smoke and sulfur – on good days. On bad days, he smelled sharp with the tang of bile.

But Chaff and Haymitch were back together, so today was a good day.


	12. 012, Opposites Attract, Finnick, Annie

**012. Opposites Attract? {Finnick/Annie}**

You might say that Finnick Odair and Annie Cresta were not exactly the best of friends when they were children.

You might also say that raw crude oil was a perfect vestment for pelicans.

Annie Cresta was a soft-spoken, glowing child who loved school and reading and the science behind their sea – from phytoplankton to cetaceans – and was quick to correct even their teachers.

Finnick Odair was golden, blazing; the virulent Career with the leanest, brownest muscles and loudest laugh in the District. Every girl fell under his spell with a single wink.

Everyone except, of course, for Annie Cresta.


	13. 013, Revelations, Katniss, Finnick

**013. Revelations {Katniss+Finnick}**

The biggest lesson that Finnick ever taught, he taught without any conscious forethought: how to have faith.

Finnick should have been an empty shell by the time they met. Instead, he was vibrant and headstrong and, most importantly, he was motivated not by revenge or hatred, but by love. He wasn't afraid of creating permanent things in the world. When he died, Katniss thought everything had shattered –

But then Annie Odair sent a water-damaged photograph of a bronze-haired baby with laughing green eyes, and Katniss realized that she should have had more faith in Finnick's ability to keep on creating.


	14. 014, Fifteen, Foxface, Thresh

**014. Fifteen {Foxface/Thresh}**

Somewhere deep in the pit of her stomach, Foxface understands that this isn't how it should be. She should be giggling in the back of a classroom with her girlfriends and dissecting every word he said – or maybe, in his case, _didn't_ say – and hoping he might ask to walk her home one afternoon.

Instead, she just stares at the sleek bulk of his muscles across the Training gymnasium as he lifts weights – and once, his District partner, the little birdlike one, to make her laugh – and admires the curve of his lips as he dabbles clumsily with camouflage inks.


	15. 015, Obsession, Gloss, Glimmer

**015. Obsession {Gloss/Glimmer}**

Most of the girls in her class watched the Games and tittered endlessly about Finnick Odair, but Glimmer didn't see his appeal. Finnick Odair was a sissy prettyboy, some rube from the ocean District who happened to get lucky. (_I'd let him get lucky_, snorted her friends.)

Glimmer watched the Games for hard-edged, snarling Gloss. She'd seen him once in the District square, shaking down a blackmarket peddler for some morphling – literally shaking him, until the man's pockets were emptied on the ground.

When she was Reaped, she made a beeline for his train compartment on her very first night.


End file.
